In a wireless communication system, such as a cellular telephone system, a broadcast message, such as a short message service (“SMS”) message, a cell broadcast service (“CBS”) message, and a Multimedia Broadcast and Multimedia Service (“MBMS”) message, can be transmitted from a base station to wireless portable communication devices that are registered to the base station. Generally, a user subscribes to a service provider for messages that provide information of his choice, such as news, sports, stock quotes, and others alike, and receives messages containing information of his choice from the service provider. However, there is no requirement to subscribe to any broadcast message service, and those wireless portable communication devices without subscription may ignore all broadcast messages. When the wireless portable communication device receives the broadcast message, the user may choose to view and/or listen to the received broadcast message now or later. However, this capability of allowing the user to delay accessing the received broadcast message can be detrimental to the user's interest in some circumstances. Further, those users without any message subscription are not even aware of the broadcast message, which may be of great interest. In emergency or time critical situations, such as a terrorist attack, abduction, bomb threat, traffic accident, traffic jam, severe weather, fire, crime, or other situations alike, it would be in the user's and the public's best interest to receive and access a message regarding the emergency as soon as the message is received. For example, if a severe weather condition, such as a tornado, has just developed in the area where the user is located and a local base station transmits an emergency broadcast message notifying of the tornado in the area, it would be in the user's best interest to receive and view the message as soon as it is received. In other situations such as in a case of a missing person or kidnapping, it is desirable, or may be critical, to notify as soon as possible people in a relevant area such as a city where the missing or kidnapped person was last seen. Under emergency or time critical situations such as those described above, it is desirable to be able to receive an emergency message and to have the received emergency message communicated as soon as the emergency message is received.